By submitting your email address, you understand that you will receive email communications from Bible Gateway, a division of The Zondervan Corporation, 3900 Sparks Drive SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546 USA, including commercial communications and messages from partners of Bible Gateway. You may unsubscribe from Bible Gateway’s emails at any time. If you have any questions, please review our Privacy Policy or email us at privacy@biblegateway.com.

1 [a]How deserted lies the city,once so full of people!How like a widow is she,who once was great among the nations!She who was queen among the provinceshas now become a slave.

2 Bitterly she weeps at night,tears are on her cheeks.Among all her loversthere is no one to comfort her.All her friends have betrayed her;they have become her enemies.

3 After affliction and harsh labor,Judah has gone into exile.She dwells among the nations;she finds no resting place.All who pursue her have overtaken herin the midst of her distress.

4 The roads to Zion mourn,for no one comes to her appointed festivals.All her gateways are desolate,her priests groan,her young women grieve,and she is in bitter anguish.

5 Her foes have become her masters;her enemies are at ease.The Lord has brought her griefbecause of her many sins.Her children have gone into exile,captive before the foe.

6 All the splendor has departedfrom Daughter Zion.Her princes are like deerthat find no pasture;in weakness they have fledbefore the pursuer.

7 In the days of her affliction and wanderingJerusalem remembers all the treasuresthat were hers in days of old.When her people fell into enemy hands,there was no one to help her.Her enemies looked at herand laughed at her destruction.

8 Jerusalem has sinned greatlyand so has become unclean.All who honored her despise her,for they have all seen her naked;she herself groansand turns away.

9 Her filthiness clung to her skirts;she did not consider her future.Her fall was astounding;there was none to comfort her.“Look, Lord, on my affliction,for the enemy has triumphed.”

10 The enemy laid handson all her treasures;she saw pagan nationsenter her sanctuary—those you had forbiddento enter your assembly.

11 All her people groanas they search for bread;they barter their treasures for foodto keep themselves alive.“Look, Lord, and consider,for I am despised.”

12 “Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?Look around and see.Is any suffering like my sufferingthat was inflicted on me,that the Lord brought on mein the day of his fierce anger?

13 “From on high he sent fire,sent it down into my bones.He spread a net for my feetand turned me back.He made me desolate,faint all the day long.

14 “My sins have been bound into a yoke[b];by his hands they were woven together.They have been hung on my neck,and the Lord has sapped my strength.He has given me into the handsof those I cannot withstand.

15 “The Lord has rejectedall the warriors in my midst;he has summoned an army against meto[c] crush my young men.In his winepress the Lord has trampledVirgin Daughter Judah.

16 “This is why I weepand my eyes overflow with tears.No one is near to comfort me,no one to restore my spirit.My children are destitutebecause the enemy has prevailed.”

17 Zion stretches out her hands,but there is no one to comfort her.The Lord has decreed for Jacobthat his neighbors become his foes;Jerusalem has becomean unclean thing among them.

18 “The Lord is righteous,yet I rebelled against his command.Listen, all you peoples;look on my suffering.My young men and young womenhave gone into exile.

19 “I called to my alliesbut they betrayed me.My priests and my eldersperished in the citywhile they searched for foodto keep themselves alive.

20 “See, Lord, how distressed I am!I am in torment within,and in my heart I am disturbed,for I have been most rebellious.Outside, the sword bereaves;inside, there is only death.

21 “People have heard my groaning,but there is no one to comfort me.All my enemies have heard of my distress;they rejoice at what you have done.May you bring the day you have announcedso they may become like me.

22 “Let all their wickedness come before you;deal with themas you have dealt with mebecause of all my sins.My groans are manyand my heart is faint.”

2 [d]How the Lord has covered Daughter Zionwith the cloud of his anger[e]!He has hurled down the splendor of Israelfrom heaven to earth;he has not remembered his footstoolin the day of his anger.

2 Without pity the Lord has swallowed upall the dwellings of Jacob;in his wrath he has torn downthe strongholds of Daughter Judah.He has brought her kingdom and its princesdown to the ground in dishonor.

3 In fierce anger he has cut offevery horn[f][g] of Israel.He has withdrawn his right handat the approach of the enemy.He has burned in Jacob like a flaming firethat consumes everything around it.

4 Like an enemy he has strung his bow;his right hand is ready.Like a foe he has slainall who were pleasing to the eye;he has poured out his wrath like fireon the tent of Daughter Zion.

5 The Lord is like an enemy;he has swallowed up Israel.He has swallowed up all her palacesand destroyed her strongholds.He has multiplied mourning and lamentationfor Daughter Judah.

6 He has laid waste his dwelling like a garden;he has destroyed his place of meeting.The Lord has made Zion forgether appointed festivals and her Sabbaths;in his fierce anger he has spurnedboth king and priest.

7 The Lord has rejected his altarand abandoned his sanctuary.He has given the walls of her palacesinto the hands of the enemy;they have raised a shout in the house of the Lordas on the day of an appointed festival.

8 The Lord determined to tear downthe wall around Daughter Zion.He stretched out a measuring lineand did not withhold his hand from destroying.He made ramparts and walls lament;together they wasted away.

9 Her gates have sunk into the ground;their bars he has broken and destroyed.Her king and her princes are exiled among the nations,the law is no more,and her prophets no longer findvisions from the Lord.

10 The elders of Daughter Zionsit on the ground in silence;they have sprinkled dust on their headsand put on sackcloth.The young women of Jerusalemhave bowed their heads to the ground.

11 My eyes fail from weeping,I am in torment within;my heart is poured out on the groundbecause my people are destroyed,because children and infants faintin the streets of the city.

12 They say to their mothers,“Where is bread and wine?”as they faint like the woundedin the streets of the city,as their lives ebb awayin their mothers’ arms.

13 What can I say for you?With what can I compare you,Daughter Jerusalem?To what can I liken you,that I may comfort you,Virgin Daughter Zion?Your wound is as deep as the sea.Who can heal you?

14 The visions of your prophetswere false and worthless;they did not expose your sinto ward off your captivity.The prophecies they gave youwere false and misleading.

15 All who pass your wayclap their hands at you;they scoff and shake their headsat Daughter Jerusalem:“Is this the city that was calledthe perfection of beauty,the joy of the whole earth?”

16 All your enemies open their mouthswide against you;they scoff and gnash their teethand say, “We have swallowed her up.This is the day we have waited for;we have lived to see it.”

17 The Lord has done what he planned;he has fulfilled his word,which he decreed long ago.He has overthrown you without pity,he has let the enemy gloat over you,he has exalted the horn[h] of your foes.

18 The hearts of the peoplecry out to the Lord.You walls of Daughter Zion,let your tears flow like a riverday and night;give yourself no relief,your eyes no rest.

19 Arise, cry out in the night,as the watches of the night begin;pour out your heart like waterin the presence of the Lord.Lift up your hands to himfor the lives of your children,who faint from hungerat every street corner.

20 “Look, Lord, and consider:Whom have you ever treated like this?Should women eat their offspring,the children they have cared for?Should priest and prophet be killedin the sanctuary of the Lord?

21 “Young and old lie togetherin the dust of the streets;my young men and young womenhave fallen by the sword.You have slain them in the day of your anger;you have slaughtered them without pity.

22 “As you summon to a feast day,so you summoned against me terrors on every side.In the day of the Lord’s angerno one escaped or survived;those I cared for and rearedmy enemy has destroyed.”

Footnotes:

Lamentations 1:1This chapter is an acrostic poem, the verses of which begin with the successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet.

Christ’s Sacrifice Once for All

10 The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship.2 Otherwise, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins.3 But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins.4 It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

5 Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said:

“Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,but a body you prepared for me;6 with burnt offerings and sin offeringsyou were not pleased.7 Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll—I have come to do your will, my God.’”[a]

8 First he said, “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them”—though they were offered in accordance with the law.9 Then he said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.” He sets aside the first to establish the second.10 And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

11 Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.12 But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God,13 and since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool.14 For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.

15 The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says:

16 “This is the covenant I will make with themafter that time, says the Lord.I will put my laws in their hearts,and I will write them on their minds.”[b]